Boy, 5, drowned in swimming pool on first day of family holiday to Portugal after taking off his life jacket in water

A YOUNG boy drowned in a villa swimming pool on the first day of a family holiday to Portugal.

Tragic Archie Skidmore had taken off his life jacket before he got into difficulties in the villa’s pool on July 28 this year.

Parents Rachel and Steven had taken their triplets for a week-long-family holiday to Silves, Algarve, with the boys’ grandparents Ursula and Martin Skidmore.

Archie and his brothers William and George were desperate to get into the pool the moment they arrived at the villa, an inquest heard.

Archie originally went into the pool under the supervision of his granddad Martin, while Steven and Ursula went to the local shops, as Rachel unpacked.

Steven returned to find the boys playing inside the villa and joined his wife on the villa balcony overlooking the pool – when he got a “sixth sense”.

Mother-of-three Rachel, of Belbroughton, Worcestershire, said: “We looked over the balcony and that’s when we saw Archie.

“Archie was floating face down in water without his life jacket on.”

Rachel, a trained first aider, called an ambulance then gave her son CPR, but paramedics sadly pronounced Archie dead at the scene at 4.50pm.

The inquest heard the boys were not competant swimmers, but had been having regular lessons once or twice a week.

Rachel, who had bought the triplets lifejacket-style buoyancy devices, reiterated the importance of wearing them near the pool.

She said: “We made sure that they were wearing them and made them aware they were not to go in the pool without them, and not around the pool without an adult.

“I repeated that and so did Martin for over half an hour or an hour.

“I took inflatable rings and blew those up and so they had quite a few buoyancy devices at the time.”

The post-mortem results had not come back yet as various papers were still being translated and transferred from Portuguese authorities.

She added: “It’s very important that I see the findings of the autopsy. Purely because I would like to know if he had a bump to his head – if he was conscious or unconscious before he went in the water.

“Those are questions I need answering, personally.”

Archie’s father Martin told the inquest he had had “reservations about the lifejackets.”

He said: “They are not lifejackets but floatation devices. They zip up at the front but the children could unzip them.”

Martin said the zips “should be on the back. It’s something that needs to be brought to attention.”

Worcestershire Coroner’s Court had ruled on Wednesday the youngster death was accidental.

Assistant coroner Andrew Cox said “Archie was swimming in a pool and at some point he removed the flotation device and got into the pool unsupervised.”

The family of have now set up a JustGiving page where they describe Archie as a ‘beautiful soul’.

They have already surpassed their £3,000 target to fund a piece of playground equipment with the total currently passed £8,800.